Indexing devices



APril 1961 w. w. GILES Y 2,979,834

INDEXING DEVICES Filed May 19, 1959 F /G'. FIG. 2.

United States Patent INDEXING DEVICES Walter W. Giles, 2631 Locksley Place, Los Angeles, Calif.

Filed May 19, 1959, Ser. No. 814,223

1 Claim. (CI. 35-73) This invention relates to a device for the index selection from a magazine of blocks bearing letters and symbols and facilitating their arrangement in parallel textual lines.

An object of the invention is to familiarize learners with the alphabet and aflord a means of practicing spelling and sentence construction.

Another object of the invention i to provide manual occupation for children while stimulating their interest in letters and reading.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description and drawings forming a part thereof and in which:

Fig. l is a front elevation of the device with parts broken away,

Fig. 2 is an end elevation,

Fig. 3 is fragmentary plan on line 3-3 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section on line 4-4 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section on line 55 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary section on line 66 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 7 is a perspective of the symbol block for capital letters, and

Fig. 8 is a perspective of the T-rail 18 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, basically the device 10 consists of a rotatable magazine 14 supported by bearings 17, 17 in a trunnion frame 11, and joined to a rectangular structure 12 having a recessed cavity in which is slidably positioned a panel 21.

The rotatable magazine 14 is a squirrel-cage assembly consisting of two circular end parts 15, 15 and multiple longitudinal T-rails 18,chamfered at the ends as in 18d and having a cross-section 18c, aflixed thereto in notches 15a. Each of the circular end parts 15 has a trunnion 16 supported by a bearing 17 in the trunnion frame 11. Symbol blocks 13a, 13b, and 1130, printable on one face and channelled with T-shaped passages 13:: are locked slidably on the T-rails 18. A ring segment 19 is fixed in notches 18b to the outer surface of the T-rails 18 and separates lower case letters from capital letters in the magazine. Symbol blocks 13d, indicating the letters stored on a particular T-rail, are fixed on both sides of the ring segment. A blank T-rail 18a passes through the ring segment 19 in the gap 19a.

The rectangular structure 12 is joined to the trunnion frame 11 and has a rectangularly recessed cavity within aframe 20. j

The panel structure 21 consists of a base plate 21a to which are fixed the textual T-rails 22, identical in cross-section with the T-rails 18 and 18a, with chamfers 22b and having upper faces 22a co-planar with the upper face of a bridge T-rail 18e positioned in a recess of the frame 20. The panel structure is closely but slidably positioned within the cavity a and is retained in grooves 20b by the pressure of a spring 23, the bent end of which 23a is retained in a hole 200 in a side of the frame 20.

A bridge T-rail 18a, in the same plane with, and parallel in alignment to, the T-rails 22, and mounted in the gap 24 provides a bridging means for transferring symbol blocks fromthe magazine T-rails 18 to the T-rails 22 mounted on the panel base plate 21a.

In operating the indexing device, symbol blocks 13 are slid from the magazine T-rails 18, across the bridge T-rails 18e, and thence to T-rails 22 for textual arrange 2,979,834 Patented Apr. 18, 1961 ment. When a capital letter is required in the text, a symbol block bearing a capital letter is slid from the portion of a T-rail 18 on the right-hand or capital-letter side of the divider ring segment 19 onto the sidetrack T rail 25; the magazine 14 is then rotated till the transfer T-rail 18a is in alignment with the sidetrack T-rail 25 and the bridge T-rail 18e; whereupon, the symbol block bearing the capital letter may he slid across the tranfser T-rail 18a, onto the bridge T-rail 182, and thence onto a textual T-rail 22.

Inasmuch as various changes may be made in the form, location and relative arrangement of the several parts without departing from the essential characteristics of the invention, it will be understood that the invention is not to be limited except by the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In an indexing device the combination of: a rotatable magazine consisting of two circular, parallel and trunnioned end members positioned perpendicularly to an axis line traversing their centers, a plurality of symmetrically spaced T-rails afiixed at their ends to the circumferential peripheries of the said circular end members and parallel to the centerline axis thereof, a plurality of symbol blocks, printable on their upper faces, slidably mounted on said T-rails, said blocks having Tfshaped channels excised therethrough for locking said blocks to said T-rails, a divider ring segment embracing transversely all but one of the said plurality of T-rails, said ring segment comprising means for segregating upon the T- rails said symbol blocks, a trunnion support frame consisting of a horizontal base and two uprights with hearing means for supporting the trunnions of the rotatable magazine; a rectangular panel frame, grooved on the illner edges of two parallel sides, and joined externally to one upright of the trunnion support frame, with the two grooved sides of the panel frame parallel to the circular end members of the magazine; a rectangular panel structure consisting of a flat base having its edges slidable in the grooved inner edges of the panel frame and slidably positioned therein, said panel base having affixed to its upper surface a plurality of T-rails identtical in cross-section with the T-rails of the magazine spring means for retaining the panel structure in the frame, the upper surface of the said panel base T-rails being positioned in the same plane as the upper surface of a bridge T-rail; longitudinally parallel to the centerline axis of the magazine and positioned in a recess in a side of the panel frame adjacent to an end of the magazine, so that the magazine T-rails can by rotation of the magazine be brought into joinable alignment with the T-rails mounted on the panel base, said bridge T-rail providing means for transferring symbol blocks, from T-rails of the magazine to T-rails of the panel base; a sidetrack T-rail, curved at one end and fixed on the upright of the trunnion support frame at the end of the frame remote from the panel frame, the curved end of said sidetrack T- rail being positioned adjacent to an end of the magazine, providing means for temporary reception of symbol blocks as they may be selected and removed by sliding from the T-rails of the magazine; the T-rail mounted on the circular end members of the magazine and traversing the interruption of the divider ring segment, providing means for transferring symbol blocks from the sidetrack T-rail to the bridge T-rail.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Cornelius Mar. 3, 1959 

